4th quarter began yesterday. It is hard to believe we only have 42 days left in this school year!
Last week Ms. Gardner came to the LC to meet with 6 & 7 graders for scheduling. Students selected Encore and Electives classes for next year. It was very interesting to watch the process and see student ponder what classes to take next year. One new thing is that Encore classes will be quarterly classes. Also, band and choir students who have a yearlong class will also be able to choose another elective class. PE and health will be combined and will be a semester class. Computer class is now an elective class as well. My lessons are winding down. The next 2 visits will be MAP test prep. The next visit will be going over the type of questions and how you choose the answer you want will be the lesson. The next visit will be how to prepare for the MAP test( i.e. get rest, eat good breakfast, etc.) Our MAP scores improved last year and this is one way I felt I was contributing to this. MAP testing will start on April 22 with 8th grade testing in science. 6 & 7 graders will start with ELA. We will use a block schedule to give time for everyone to complete the testing sessions. A schedule will be released soon. Please have good attendance during MAP testing as it will be better for you and your scores. Testing will go until May3rd with the next week being make up days! Summer school sign ups are taking place now for 6 & 7 graders. Please consider coming to summer school for fun classes being offered. Incoming sixth graders will be offered the Transition class again this year. Since there will be no Intro to 6th grade as an Encore class, I highly recommend taking it. Summer school runs from May 29 until June 21 from 8 AM until 2:30 PM. Sign up is online if you want to attend! 6th grade parents who would like more information, April 4 at 6 PM, there will be a parent night at ESMS. 8th graders, who will be considered freshman for summer school, can take classes for credit. Those classes will be available for signing up soon. They are preparing staff and classes at this time. Ms. Tadlock is the admin for secondary summer school so look for more information from her soon on signing up. Our last day of school is scheduled for May 17. It is scheduled to be a full day! Let's finish this year strong!
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Welcome back! Some changes are occurring....we are making up our Red Snow Day on Monday, April 15. This will help us better prepare for our upcoming MAP testing which begins on Monday, April 22. As the part of the next few weeks lesson, I will include some MAP tips and preparation ideas. Teachers want the students to feel comfortable with the types of questions and things they can do to be more successful.
Soon our 5th graders will be visiting the Middle School in an effort to prepare them for the transition. Some of our current students will answer questions while others give the students tours of the building. Mrs. Gardner is in charge of this. The Middle School will also hold a night for parents to come in and get questions answered and move about the building in hopes of making them feel more comfortable as well. Please watch the school's Facebook page to see the dates for these events. I will also try to get these posted to my Google Classroom and Website as soon as they are available. The final order of books will be purchased soon. The goal was to support our curriculum including Encore classes. The Middle School will be adding more Encore classes for next year so materials were needed. The dances that are being offered seemed to be a hit wit the students. Students said the decorations along with being in the gym where there was more room were reasons the students thought the dance was successful. Being able hang out with friends and a wide variety of snacks was an appeal factor. Students reported that the teachers were dancing, seating was provided, and more teachers for better supervision added more to the event. Thanks to the adults who are making this happen. Spring Break is fast approaching. We will not be in school from Monday, March 25 through Friday, March 29. We will return to school on Monday, April 1. Hopefully, the weather will be nice and we can spend some much needed time in the sun outside. The Chiefs WON the SUPER BOWL! I cannot believe this! This means we will have Wednesday to go celebrate! No School!
Thursday is Showcase...come in a see our students show off their talents. We will have performances, displays of art, food, and more! I am super excited for all of you to see what I see every day...our students excelling! February is half over and we are heading to the final days of third quarter. Then the final quarter of the year! We have a spring break in there from March 25 to March 29. We have a 4 day weekend in April from the 12 to the 15.. Our final day of school has changed a lot due to weather and now our "Red Snow Day". The last day was supposed to be Mary 17 but now will be moved back another day. If we have no more weather days, that should be the last adjustment. Mother Nature gave us an interesting January but seems to have calmed down a bit. Plus the groundhog did not see his shadow, so... We have so much to accomplish between now and May!!! Let's stay focused and finish this year strong! Mother Nature has been busy enough to keep us home a lot! We have used all 5 of our AMI days and 3 snow days as of now. It definitely has made things super busy today.
Techsperts are working on shelving books, writing blogs, and writing book recommendations. They are also working on bulletin boards and more. WEB Leaders are working on projects for teachers and Tiger Family Committee. Things are different right now as we have visitors in the LC some days promoting leadership in our 6 & 7 graders. Showcase is coming soon! February 15th will be 1/2 day to bring parents in to celebrate with their students on accomplishments for this year so far. Friday, February 16 will be and Inservice Day for teachers but students will have a no school day. Monday, February 19 will also be a a no school day due to President's Day. I appreciate all of your patience as we get restarted with our semester. Look forward to finishing our year strong! We are now into our second semester....things are busy as usual. WEB Leaders are no longer meeting with sixth graders but are working on building leadership skills, They are working for teachers, starting proects to improve ESMS and more.
Techperts have been added. Third hour has added Lexus and Clara. Sixth graders have now started their semester. In sixth hour is Ashton, Lillian, and Elsie. Seventh hour is Avery, Gage, Bella, and Imber. We are off to a great start! The Learning Commons is looking really great. The students are heping organize shelves and keeping the space clean. Lessons are continuing as well. Lessons take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The lessons focus on vocabulary, research skills, and improving reading skills. My biggest job is to encourage students to read. Looking forward to a successful finish to this school year...my 30th in education in the Excelsior Springs School District for all of those years. Things here are busy between lessons, ordering books, and more. Time is flying and and it will be winter break before we know it.
I attended a professional development session last Saturday and I was inspired to included a "think tank" to get students critically thinking. I am including grouping puzzles, riddles, etc. to get students thinking before we go over the lesson. The lessons are coming along. I am constantly trying to improve so that the students get the most out of them. The lessons are based on needs from MAP tests. They are mainly based on vocabulary and research skills. The social studies classes come to the Learning Commons every two weeks. This week's lessons about textbook features and how to use them to find information. Yesterday sixth graders came and they loved the "think tank" and they were exceptional good at textbook features, which makes me excited to see all the other classes. What I do is mainly review topics in a different way...library way. Another goal of mine (and every library) is to get students to read for enjoyment. Last time in the Learning Commons, they did a book pass. They were introduced to 10 new books to decide if they wanted to read, no they did not or maybe they might want to read it. Most students find at least one book they want to read. This also gives me an idea of what kind of books the student want to read so I know what to order. I encourage students to find a book they are interested so they can read for enjoyment not as an assignment. Please encourage your child to read and if they do not know what to read, send them to me and we will discuss options! Have a great week! Today is homecoming and we will be dismissed early.
Things are moving so quickly this year. We are almost done with first quarter and before we know it, second semester will be over. The LC lessons are moving along. We have done Notetaking and Lightboxes, digital book that contain nonfiction materials to enhance curriculum and reading. The students are doing a great job of participating and being engaged in lessons. I am super excited about helping the students improve their learning opportunities. Morning Book Club has been a great success. Student have come in and made bulletin boards, discussed books, helped others find good books to read, etc. I love conversing with the students. Today is Homecoming and no one came in early....totally understand! Let's finish the quarter strong! Have a great weekend! I cannot believe how fast this year is going! It is almost October! We have done lots of great things here in the Learning Commons. We are replacing bulletin boards and teaching lessons. We completed our LC introductions and procedures lesson. The lesson for last week was notetaking. We talked about why we take notes and how to keep them neat and organized so they are a tool for learning. I will continue this week with the notetaking lesson for 7th and 8th grade.
Book Club has been pretty steady. I have about 5 to 7 students every morning to talk books, do bulletin boards, and more. We are so excited to have the opportunity. The bulletin board for the hallway is so cool. The inside bulletin board the paper has been cut and we will begin on it soon. It takes us a bit to get one done as we only meet in the mornings for about 30 minutes. I am also tutoring first grade at one of our elementary schools. I love working with the students on learning letters and sound. We have our Chiefs blanket and we meet a couple times a week! I read to them alphabet books and we play games to learn the letters by sight and sound. The little ones are always glad to see me which makes my heart happy! I LOVE MY JOB! I love encouraging students to read and to be at school every day! I cannot believe after 30 years how much I still love my job! THANKS for all the support of the community at ESMS! September will start the lessons in the LC. Tomorrow and Wednesday will be 6th grade/s first visit to the space for lessons and checkout. I am always excited to introduce them to the space and how we operate.
The students will visit the space with their social studies teachers every two weeks. Each week they will get a lesson that is reading and research based. After the lesson is completed, students will be encouraged to check out books and then to read in one of the many spaces. They can also participate in the Read and Ride . Students take a physical book and go to the stationary bikes and read the book while they ride the bike. Tomorrow also marks the beginning of my morning book club. Students can enter the building at 6:40 AM and come to the LC to talk about books or check out books or get help with homework. I am excited to talk with students about books, reading, or help with work they need to complete. WEB is off to a great start. We had our first meeting last week and the kids seem to enjoy the activity. This week we will talk goals and success tips for being in middle school. The leaders are arriving early and they are also helping in the 6th grade encore classes. Great start WEB Leaders! I will update you about lessons and visit in my next blog! Well day two of year 30 has been completed. I have great Techsperts who are enthusiastically making our space amazing! Lessons to improve reading , vocabulary, and research will start soon and will go trough the social studies classes. The days that I am not teaching lessons are filling up fast with teachers that use the space to join classes or do projects or group projects. I love the space being filled with students and staff who are eager to utilize the space for learning.
We have added Encore classes first and eighth hours. I am teaching WEB first hour. We will be doing team building and important lessons for success at ESMS. The eighth graders are learning leadership skills as well. This is an important program and we have been participating for over 20 years. This group of leaders came in on summer days to create signs and plan sessions for the meetings with the sixth graders. I am excited to see for them to get started tomorrow. I will try to post often plus post some of the Techspert blogs to keep everyone informed. |
Kathy Kimsey
Library Media Specialist Excelsior Springs Middle School |